Kicking A$$

My cold / bronchitis is kicking my A$$!  Yes, it is now cruising into week three and I'm still really under the weather.   When I'm a little more upbeat I will respond to you that have tagged me, but currently my head is so full of cold and gorp I can't think straight enough to answer your questions...but I will.

Unfortunately or fortunately life goes on so here is a mini report.

•  round three of chemo ~ Bob has gone to ground, we do communicate by email or phone, but he is really feeling the effects after this round.  God Bless him for going through all of this for the sake of gathering information for others with this experimental chemo cocktail.
  
• our winter is the weirdest I can remember ever since moving to Ottawa.  Snow followed by freezing rain, then rain...repeat.  That was unheard of when I first moved here.  We'd get tons of snow, then it would snow, followed by more snow.  This is becoming more like Toronto weather...hey Toronto, you can keep this crap!
  
• this past weekend was the Walk for Memories and I'd really like to THANK those who supported Dad and I with their more than generous donations towards fighting this debilitating disease. There was a great turn-out for the walk with many local celebrities showing their support.  Hopefully as the Baby Boomers (me), head into our Senior Years, the Alzheimer Society will receive the funding they require to find a cure and stop this heartbreaking condition.
  
  
  

  

  Dad walked 10k!!

  Life's fun if you don't weaken,
  
  
  Lily

Wordless Wednesday

Keeping it real

So, I'm sick, with a cold, a really BAD COLD.  You know the kind, achy, chills, fever, running nose, coughing up gorp and for many a blessing because I've lost my voice.  Pretty huh?

However, I'm living a conundrum.  I'm sick and sort of whiny, no, a lot whiny and haven't seen my friend Bob in over a week because of this.  We've been back and forth with email but it still isn't the same as a face to face conversation.  Our last conversation was one of facing the reality of what he is living with.  The bravado is now gone, fear and depression have set in as well as the overall feeling of doom along with being VERY sick because of the experimental chemo.  He also expressed his fear of the timeline he was given...Three Months, it has been over a month since the diagnosis.  Tick Tock.

What sort of friend am I to complain to him that I have a cold?  I really, really feel as though I've let him down recently by being so busy with my dad and then coming down with this galloping gorp.

Other than investing in a Hazmat Suit, our visits will have to be put on hold.  Sometimes reality bites.

Life's fun if you don't weaken,

Lily

An anniversary of sorts

Today I am celebrating one year of being alcohol free.

Not that there was a huge problem or issue with my alcohol intake, but lets just say that when I decided to get a little more serious with my Half Ironman training, it just seemed the natural thing to eliminate from the mix (pun intended).  You know when you get home from a craptastic day of work and you have a glass of wine, then pour another while you are preparing dinner, then have a glass of wine with dinner...before you know it...a bottle is gone.  That is not good, well, it wasn't good for me.  A year ago I woke up the morning of January 22nd and said "that's enough", if you are going to try to get your lazy, sorry ass in shape to tackle the Half then you'd better get a grip on some healthy living.

So, here is to ONE YEAR !!

CHEERS!

Life's fun if you don't weaken,

Lily

Three Things Thursday

• All is not lost, after being shamed into encouraged to put some things down on my empty calender, I am happy to say that I am participating in the Walk for Memories hosted by the Alzheimer's Society on January 29th.  I'll be walking for Memories with my 92 year old father. What is amazing to me is the support that I am receiving while fund raising for the walk.  So far dad and I have raised $300.00.

• The latest news is there WILL be a Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour this year!  This is an awesome fun ride (weather permitting) which gives you several options for cycling distances.  I've only ever done the 100k.  

my first year riding Blizzard

• The weather has been craptastic lately.  Extreme cold, freezing rain, snow squalls, extreme cold (yes I meant to say it twice) along with power outages.  Yesterday our power was out for quite some time, so much so a few of my tropical fish were affected.  There were a couple of floaters this morning when I got up to feed them....RIP fishes.

Life's fun if you don't weaken,

Lily

Wordless Wednesday

Goals?

Now that we are in mid-January, I'm continually being asked what my 2012 goals are for the year.  Even my dentist asked me yesterday.

Well my calendar looks like this...

Pretty sad huh?

So far this year (don't forget, it is only mid January), I've had one DNS.  Yup, Did Not Start.  How sad is that?  Call me what you will, you can call me a wimp, coward, unadventurous soul but when the temperature outside is -25C (-13F) but feels like -31C (-23.8F) with the wind-chill, trust me when I say...I'm not racing!  Many of my friends raced the 30th Annual Richmond Road Race and had a great time.  Bully for them!

This is not my kind of fun.

So, instead I hopped on my aptly named bike "Blizzard" and worked off a few anxieties for about an hour.

Blizzard on the trainer

Trying to fit in training while trying to manage all the rest of my angst, guilt and poor time management is just adding to the stress.  So, I'll just continue to get to the pool when I can, sit and spin when I can, snowshoe and / or ski when I can and try not to take it to heart that I'm not able "do it all".  I must remember that I'm only good to others after I'm good to myself.

I can honestly say I don't know how you get any training done if you have a young family.  Believe me, to all my friends with kids, I now understand how sometimes (most of the time) your time in no longer YOUR time.  Between driving to medical appointments, dental appointments, working full time, visiting,  getting groceries, housework... the list just goes on and on.  If there is mouldy bread in someone else's fridge, it isn't necessarily my problem,  (yes, I got an email saying that their bread had gone mouldy and I understand they are not feeling very well and they are now in a depressed state),  but I've got my own mouldy bread to deal with trying to fit all this other stuff in.

So I can say that possibly my goals for 2012 are just trying to cope with all the new stress and just do what I can for the time being.

Life's fun if you don't weaken,

Lily

Honey Do List

Yesterday was Saturday and of course all the mundane duties of owning a house;

•  shovel snow off the decks and then the driveway, 
• shovel snow again because the plough went by, 
• shovel snow because Canada Post can't reach your mailbox.  
• then on to dusting, cleaning and laundry, oh and take Lily to the vet for her annual check-up.  
• visit Dad,
•  pick up meds and groceries for Bob (his chemo treatment knocked the crap out of him this week), THEN cook up some meals for him, label them and put in his freezer.

I'm at the stage now where I need to write down everything otherwise, it becomes a sea of swirl and nothing gets completed, let alone started.  Oddly, when I went to retrieve my "Honey Do List", my eyes didn't see any of the above to accomplish on this day...but eyes saw this apparition!

AWESOME!

That is EXACTLY what I needed to do to connect with my inner child!  

So began the emails to some of my friends and we met up bright and early in the freezing cold temperatures and freshly fallen snow.

a freezing cold start 

official greeter

deep into the woods

back to the bush for some warmth

met some skiers 

my little chickadee

not a cloud in the sky

resting and texting...leave the electronics at home!

we're freezing so which way to go?

trudging along

where are my treats?

Speaking of treats, we'd been out for over an hour and a half , that was enough to get our tummies rumbling.    We continued our good time while warming up with brunch and hot coffee!  After many tales, much laughter and warmth, it was time to head back to reality.

Life's fun if you don't weaken,

Lily

Anywhere but here

Have you ever had a topic continually pop up in the strangest of places?  Lately the topic that is haunting me is "where has your inner child gone"?

As I find myself losing my sense of HA HA while being burdened with grown-up stuff, it has occurred to me that I need to lighten up!  I have to admit that I am a chronic escapist, continually dreaming of where I want to be instead of being content where I am.  I scour tropical blogs and websites and cringe when someone tells me they are heading off to somewhere warm and sunny for their holidays.  I'm not begrudging the fact that I have serious commitments to people that are relying on me, but sometimes I just need to get into a fantasy head-space to deal with their reality.  Am I a bad friend?  An uncaring daughter?...no, but I am wanting to be anywhere but here at the moment.

A few weeks ago I asked some of my Facebook friends for book suggestions to deal with some of the stresses I'm experiencing.  I was flooded by their response and took it upon myself to order many of these books from Chapters on line.  One of the suggestions was Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr.  Forgive me if I shouldn't link this but come on Blog Police...give me a break.  There is a section to her book discussing the fact that even when we have real adult Sh*t going on in our lives we must take a look into our inner child and see if she would agree with the way you are treating yourself.

**Ask your inner 5 year old to take a good look at you and ask, are you happy?, are you laughing at yourself enough?, are you giving yourself credit where credit is due?  Are you looking after yourself by eating properly, taking naps, hugging your cat, really listening to friends and sharing laughter while doing fun and crazy things?  Are you getting enough exercise or enough sleep?  Are you getting enough hugs in the day?  If you answer no to anyone of these questions it is time to step back and reassess your life and yourself and your usefulness to anyone around you, because if your energy, outlook or attitude is anything but upbeat and positive, then you're not only toxic to yourself, you're toxic to those your are trying to help.

Find a picture of yourself when you were little and see what you looked like before all the adult stresses arrived, when you could sit down on the lawn and hug your dog.  When it didn't matter if you had grass stains on your corduroy's, when you were loved unconditionally.  When you fell down and you got yourself back up and laughed.  When life was full of wonder and excitement.  I bet your inner child would tell you it is time to take a time out in the corner and regroup.  That's exactly what I'm going to do, I'm going to back up, regroup and see if I can find my inner child.

Laurel and Sport

Life's fun if you don't weaken,

Lily

** Questions I asked myself, not questions from Kris Carr's book.

Wordless Wednesday

Full Moon Snow-shoe

All day the weather forecast was threatening freezing rain.  Aggghhh!

My early morning trainer ride was spinning along all the while I looking out the front window at a cornucopia of weather right before my very eyes.  Who needs TV, DVD or anything else for that matter, when you look out the window at rain, sleet, fog, sunshine ~ repeat!  The weather was not looking promising for our get together.

 When I threw out the idea of our snow-shoe, I included a Pot-Luck East Indian theme for the fare.  What better way to get the creative juices flowing than by challenging everyone to come up with some delectable delights.  So far, my procrastinating ways have not changed in 2012 but luckily for me, there is a new East Indian grocery store in the plaza where I work, so with ingredient list in hand I scoured the shelves looking for spices I've never even heard off.  I picked up everything required to make the Mango Cucumber Potato Salad, Mango Salsa and I cheated and bought a very spicy Lime Pickle.  All the while I was in town, it was in fact raining and sleeting, aggghhhh, all I could do was continue with my Full Moon chant and prayers to the weather Gods.  During my drive home the weather and the wind was shifting, you could feel it getting colder and when I finally arrived home with my bundle of groceries it was starting to snow!  YES!

While I was preparing the recipes I kept going to my back door and peering out I finally saw what I'd wished for all day!

The Moon Dance paid off! 

It was so great to catch up with everyone!  This was the group I'd met so many years ago when we all started running at the Running Room.  Albeit they are much younger and faster runners, it is just amazing that we have kept in touch over the years.  Running and Triathlons seem to make an unbreakable bond.

Our gracious host's beautiful Christmas Tree

Heading into the night

A quick regroup

it was getting colder

and colder

breaking a new trail

ski's are just fine too!

where I live is gorgeous

When we emerged from the bush it was really cold and very windy, many had thought that they'd over dressed for the event, but once we were back in the open everyone was scrambling to zip back up their jackets and pull their toques down further on their heads.

Once back at the house the food prep was in full swing!  Every element on the gas stove was in use, the oven was on heating up nan bread, delicious aromas were wafting through the air and believe me, just hearing the laughter, the tales of first time snow-shoer's, toasting the new year and hearing all about their Ironman training made it all worth while.  What a great way to kick off 2012!  Wishing all of you great success while getting ready for Ironman Mt. Tremblant!  See you out on the roads and at the pool!

Life's fun if you don't weaken,

Lily

almost the weekend

it's Friday!

So that means back to the pool for lane swim and I can hardly wait!  I love swimming and especially love how all my winter aches and pains just seem to slip away in the pool.  Hopefully I'll be ready to tackle the 2012 Bring on the Bay in July.  Registration opens February 1st!!

setting up the buoys for the 3k race

Rumour has it that this year will be the first year without the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour.  How can that be?

there are hundreds of cyclists

finding your bag isn't always easy

yes, there are hills!

but good friends can conquer anything together

So, between swimming today, preparing food for the Full Moon Snow-shoe and perhaps getting some cross country skiing in, it will be a busy, fun weekend.  Hope yours is too!

Life's fun if you don't weaken,

Lily

There is a light at the end of the tunnel

and it isn't just the train!

Even though I have all sorts of "real" life drama going on and I have most likely been subconsciously using it as an excuse to not set some 2012 goals, there are a few things on the horizon.

This weekend a group of friends are getting together for our Full Moon Snowshoe.  We pile into a friends beautiful home with all of our pot-luck fare and then head out into the wilds for fun, laughter and a good workout.  This year we will be doing the Full Moon Dance so that we can be certain the moon comes out to play with us.  It won't be a late night of frivolity this year as a majority of the group are training for Ironman Mt. Tremblant.

Also included in my moderate goals for this year (so far), is the 30th Annual Richmond Road Race.  I've learned from past experiences that this is one of the most fun races of the year.  Considering the weather can be anything from -40C to +10C, I generally just run the 5k, after all I haven't been out running since Thanksgiving weekend in October!!

On a totally crazy whim, I stuck my name into the New York City Marathon Lottery.  So far no word but if perchance I do get in, then with any luck, so will my friend Shelley from Born to Endure and we can have a blogger meet up!  Wouldn't that be just awesome?

So, in fact there are a few irons (ahhemmmm) in the proverbial fire, nothing has been fully committed to just yet.

Life's fun if you don't weaken,

Lily

Wordless Wednesday

Winter Amarilis

If you look hard enough

Yesterday's post sounded all doom and gloom and really I'm not in the throws of a meltdown.  Truly, I'm okay. It is just that reality has jumped right up and then bit me in the ass.  As I'm learning to cope with a parent and their old age, a best friends terminal illness and the general lack of planning for the future on my part, it has really taken its toll on me.  It has been exactly like looking through the Looking Glass to see that measures must be taken as I ease into "old age".  Financial planning and obtaining some sort of medical plan are top priority as we glide into 2012.  Working on contract certainly has its advantages, but it also has many disadvantages...so procuring a medical plan is definitely top of the list.

Considering that I fling myself into wild and crazy adventures with gay abandon and put no real thought of possible consequences, having a back up plan is justified.  One never knows but then again, if we worry about every possible scenario of injury well who on earth would do what we do...swim, bike and run!!!

3k Bring on the Bay finish 2011

Half Iron Cycle 2011

Olympic distance run 2011

As 2012 rumbles on, I'm learning to look more and more at the bright and cheery side of things, like spending quality time with good friends, seeking solace with nature and knowing that no matter what we do in life, none of us get out of this alive...

If you look hard enough...

Life's fun if you don't weaken,

Lily

A new year

and I've got nothing to say.

My year is a clean slate, yet I'm not getting any inspiration for that.  Odd...

I have been out and about, snow-shoeing, cross country skiing and spending time indoors on the trainer.  Yet somehow I'm just going through the motions with no zing or vitality.  Hopefully all this is temporary.

Blizzard on the trainer

I will continue to catch up with your blogs, I'm certain they will give me the spark of life I need at the moment.

Life's fun if you don't weaken

Lily